xmas comes to the shoebox

nathan and i trotted out my nutcracker collection this past weekend so that there would be some semblance of holiday cheer in our shoebox. all these years living on my own, i haven't often had an xmas tree, which is completely tragic being that i love them so. this year it dawned on me: wreathes! the poor man's tree. still fills the room with that gorgeous smell.

my favorite nutcracker is the pink haired pirate. he has a treasure map draped over his arm... and a pegleg!


this stocking is as old as i am, knitted for me by great grandma flo.

rainy day hiding

san francisco is none too happy about the storm that barrelled through the region yesterday, but i sure enjoyed staying warm and cozy tucked away in the shoebox.

this was the first time in a while that i could keep out of the rain and have the apartment all to myself, so i indulged in some of my favorite rainy day activities, many of which are holdovers i guess from rainy days at school when i was teen.

what are your favorite rainy day activities?

mine are reading, watching movies, padding around in slippers, and drinking hot cocoa. typical!

quilt dream

i am absolutely in love with these new textile designs from heather ross's collection far far away. my favorite is the princess and the pea. also pictured: t. the frog prince and b. unicorn meadow.

if i am ever able to spend some time crafting around the house just for fun, i think the princess & the pea will have to be incorporated in to a rings quilt. we just got a pillowy white comforter that is in need of a duvet cover... too girly?

look busy

boy, we've been pretty busy since we got back from new orleans. i'm still backlogged with more wonderful photos from the big sticky in addition to more recent snaps.

what are we up to? we're apartment hunting, car hunting, job hunting, cooking more, exercising more, reading, laughing, and yep, crocheting. i have a small vase collection that i've been wanting to make protective cozies for. it's coming along!

staying in

mid-stay, we moved in to the lafitte guest house on bourbon street of all places. fortunately, it was on the esplanade side of bourbon, which means we weren't tormented at night by the sounds of drunken coed yacking and screaming.

the house was built in 1849 as a private home and suffered significant water damage after katrina. fortunately, it has been fully restored since.

feeling purple

solo brekkie

i couldn't quite get up this morning, so nathan was kind enough to gimme a break from the stepford program and let me sleep in. once i was up, i enjoyed a quiet breakfast by myself: bacon & pumpkin pancakes with syrup and cardamom cream!

my new favorite culinary delight is the cream, a simple combination of heavy cream whipped with a little sour cream and fresh ground cardamom. i wheedled it from an amazing dessert recipe by elizabeth faulkner. i've made it twice to rave reviews, so i'll have to actually post about it the next time i make it.

housewife

as this blurry action photo attests, i am making good on my solemn promise to nathan to cook him breakfast and dinner every day until i find another job. tonight, our lovely friends dan & leanne are coming over for dinner and i still don't know what i am making. oh, bother.

early morning

it has been a while since i brought some flowers home. this arrangement was deconstructed from a bouquet shawan made for bride's magazine and has been my favorite focal point in my bedroom all week long.

something wee this way comes

i chanced upon a wee muscari plant at trader joe's a week or so ago. it was the best $2.49 i've spent in recent memory.

i've been a good mommy! this little guy was a little stub when i first brought him home.

plant family

i've been sick with a cold the past couple days and, to cheer me up, nathan repotted a bunch of our plants and let me pick out two new ones from the plant warehouse. pictured above is a euphorbia.


i couldn't resist getting another fern. plant shopping is not unlike adopting a cat or dog. each plant seems to have it's own personality, and i get very choosy.


and in case you were wondering, here is a shot of my happy cyclamen, italian parsley, and brand new (and thriving!) kentucky colonel mint.

today is my sweet pal jill's birthday! happy birthday, small stump craft machine!

growing

lately i've been feeling heavily burdened by the outside world, so i took some time this morning to admire the simple pleasures i live with every day. my cyclamen and iceland poppy are back in bloom!

beaucoup bouquets

i brought a ton of wastage home this weekend and had a lovely time tucking little flower arrangements all over the shoebox.

greenery

i'm so happy friday is here, and a leap year friday no less! look at the beautiful flowers i brought home from work! tres springy. they remind me of all the fun easter bouquets jill made last year.

was lucky enough to pillage a pile of branches at work; making a batch of slingshots for an upcoming project and this one still had some sweet little plum blossoms on it.

i love plants, but you might already know that i don't have much of a green thumb. imagine my surprise when i planted some italian parsley seeds and they actually started to grow! if i can't have pets or children, at least i can have happy house plants and mini herb gardens, non?

lots of dirt under my fingernails now

i don't know how i mustered the energy, but i managed to do beaucoup repotting before bed last night. here are some pictures i got just before leaving the shoebox for work this morning. i am especially excited about the heather i bought over the weekend. scott (my plant expert xoxo) says heather can never get enough water, so we'll see how it fares under my not-so-green thumb. the little chimney sweep and his pig friend are good luck in germany, so i thought they would best serve standing watch over my lovely heather.

the egg planter is a piece i coveted for months at anthro (of course! where else?) and the last portrait is of my newest nerve plant who has been growing rapidly since i brought him home last summer. i love how bushy he is.

rite of passage

nathan was kind enough to make pancakes for me. "don't eat 'em too fast!" they actually were pretty good.


there comes a time when all of us must bid farewell to our college futon, and thank the lord that day has finally come for us! our new sofa arrived this weekend and i am already getting crumbs on it.

clever french people

boss lady brought back a nice stack of design and home decor magazines from her trip to paris which i immediately pilfered. i found these images in the février-mars issue of elle decoration and mon dieu, i just about died they are so cute. it seems that i respond most favorably to children's decor when it comes to foreign design. it must be all that color after pages of chrome and glass.

good morning, good night

hello hello! today was another grey one here in san francisco. nathan judas and i got up early to run errands with a zipcar, and for all our zipping around town we were still able to make the matinee for no country for old men at the lumiere!

i made coppa & cheddar paninis for lunch and watched some old batman cartoons. trying to whittle down my expansive shoe collection before bed (shoebox, remember?)

what did you do today?